On Monday I was preparing to go back to my driveway surfing in Prescott Valley, and was about to pack up when I got a phone call. It was from a man I met in Quartzsite this winter. He asked “Where are you?” At just about the same time, I saw a van I didn’t recognize stopped on the road right in front of my campsite. I told him I was just south of Prescott in the Prescott National Forest and he said, “Off Bloody Basin Road?” (I know, it sounds awful, but it was beautiful). I said, “Is that you in the tan van?” He pulled into my site and got out and we visited for an hour or so. He was going south, and I was heading to where he had just left. I didn’t recognize his rig because he had traded his truck and trailer in for a new 4wd Mercedes, built out by Winnebago. It sure was nice and he seemed pleased with the trade up. One of my favorite things since I’ve been on the road is to bump into friends I have met along the way. Occasionally we check in with each other and plan to get together when we know we are passing close by or heading to the same area, but it is so cool when we just happen to occupy the same space at the same time just by pure chance. We had a nice visit.
I moved back to Barbara and Lark’s driveway in the afternoon. That put me about 3 minutes from the mechanic who fixed my van on Tuesday morning. I got to the Truck and RV mechanic just before 10:00 and they took me in relatively quickly. Unfortunately, another van/RV was up on the lift they needed for mine. They tried to hoist my van on a different one that lifted from the chassis (the one they needed was the kind you drive onto, and it lifted by all 4 tires) but I have too much “stuff” underneath (fresh water tank, grey water tank, propane, pipes, and various plumbing). They had to finish the other van before they could lift my van. They finally did at about noon, and the generic bracket that they ordered which held the shock absorber in place was slightly wide, so they had to modify it. The short story is that they got me all finished by about 3:00. Barbara and Lark graciously agreed to have me in their driveway another night, so I went back, and we had Thai Food for Dinner (Thanks Lark) and Cosmo and I went to bed early. It was a stressful day for both of us.
Wednesday morning I packed up and battened down and was ready to go by 8:00. I went in and visited briefly and then said good-bye to my hostesses and took some selfies.
Me and Barbara
Me and Lark
We were on the road before 10:00 and made it to our new home shortly after 11:00. The weather was warm and sunny, but a bit windy. No complaints about that. The van had a nice breeze blowing through.
The spot was just a mile or so from Sedona, in the Coconino National Forest. Yeah, I know. No trees. We should get into a REAL forest by the time we hit Flagstaff, perhaps as early as this coming week. The temperature was still getting down to freezing in Flagstaff some nights this week, so the stop over near Sedona was a good spot to spend a few nights while waiting on better weather.
My spot was nice. There was someone in a red van at the other end of the site, but I never saw the occupant. On the first day, a young man who was car camping pulled in just east of me. We chatted a couple of times when I walked Cosmo. He was friendly enough but seemed to be sort of a loner. He didn’t pitch a tent, but slept in the back of the car, and had a very compact set-up for cooking when he opened his hatchback. Definitely a minimalist and I admired that. When I left Delaware, I thought I had the absolute minimum necessary to survive on the road. I’ve learned on my journey that I have way more luxuries than a lot of my fellow travelers. I extended an invitation to my neighbor to stop over if he felt claustrophobic or would like to visit and have some coffee. He thanked me, but never took me up on the offer. We had a couple windy days, and the red dust was formidable, so everyone pretty much stayed inside. I wondered how he managed to sit in the driver’s seat of a very small car all day. I’m sure many of my friends wonder how I stay shut inside my van with Cosmo all day.
Before I got to the site between Rimrock and Sedona, I stopped for groceries. I’d been watching a docu-series all week called “Food Revolution.” (Thanks, Jonah, for sharing the link). It inspired me to once again up my game on diet and exercise and so I stocked up on fresh fruits and vegetables. I ate some healthy and delicious meals all week.
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On Friday, my friend Chase, who I met in Quartzsite over the winter texted me. He was in Palm Springs and heading east. He asked for my coordinates and said he’d see me later in the day. I was so glad we’d get a chance to camp together again before he headed back to Cape Cod for the summer.
At the time he contacted me, three of my neighbors had just moved out of their spots leaving me the only camper for a half a mile or so. I hoped it would remain that way until Chase arrived, so he’d be able to pick a nearby spot in the site I occupied. That was not to be the case. Before he arrived, four other rigs pulled in. The spot seemed meant for two rigs, or maybe 3 or four rigs if the people all knew each other. I was in the last spot before a gate; the road continued, but appeared to be closed off for cattle grazing. I think since it was a Friday night, people were looking for a spot for the weekend, drove up the long forest road and found all other spots full, and when they got to the gate, decided that they could “squeeze in” to the spot I occupied with two others. By the time Chase got here, there were 4 others in our space, and after he got set up close to my van, two more jammed in. About a half hour before he got here, a rancher pulled in with a pick-up truck pulling a trailer with a large tank of water followed by another truck and trailer carrying what looked like a giant kiddie pool. They opened part of the fence and took the kiddie pool/cow watering trough and put it on the other side of the fence from where I was parked. They moved the tanker trailer close to the trough but still on my side of the fence and filled it up. They put the fence back and left with little fanfare. By the time Chase pulled in and got set up, the cows and bulls and calves came from down the hill to graze and get water. Some gate must’ve been opened to allow them into this field, because for the two days prior, I had seen no sign of livestock. Cows are loud and I found out, capable of many different sounds. There was the low mooing you’d expect, but there was braying like jackasses as well, and screaming like a large animal in heat. They kept it up most of the night. When they got close to the fence to drink they woke Cosmo up, who barked at them and woke me up. It was a long night and I didn’t sleep much.
The next day, the ranchers came and refilled the watering trough and removed the tanker. They were on horseback, fairly rude, quite invasive and had a pack of herding dogs. They were on the other side of the fence, but the rancher came through a gate, still on horseback and the dogs all came toward us. Chase suggested that I get Cosmo inside since the other dogs were acting as a pack and he feared they might gang up on Cosmo. They weren’t here long, but they were quite disruptive. They acted as if we were on their land. We were, in fact, in the Coconino National Forest, in a section designated for camping. I don’t know what sort of arrangement the government makes with ranchers for the use of the Forest for grazing, but they came into our campsite with multiple trucks, several horses and a pack of dogs and asked Chase to move his van so they could retrieve their water tank on wheels.
After they left, I made some cinnamon rolls and coffee, and Chase, Cosmo and I sat out in the sun. It was a beautiful day, despite the wind and blowing dust. We both went to our vans by mid-afternoon and took a nap. Cosmo had preceded us by about an hour. He was clearly wiped out from a night of barking at cows.
Lessons From The Road: It struck me that humans are very territorial, and in very different ways and to different degrees. When I pulled onto the Forest Road, I drove perhaps a couple miles. I came across several large spaces with small rigs already in them. I knew I could easily fit, but I felt like someone had already claimed the space and it seemed rude to move into their spot even if there was plenty of room. I went to the end of the road, and found a very large space, seeming to split at the end of the “driveway.” There were two campfire rings, and there was a small, red van parked far to one side, next to one of the rings. I pulled in cautiously, and went to the opposite side, near the second fire ring. There were some bushes between us, and quite a bit of space, so I decided that I was not being invasive. I took my time getting level, thinking that if the person came out of the other van, I’d ask if I was OK where I was parked. No one came out, so I set up and stayed. We had that arrangement for two days. I saw her get out once, but she never looked over and we never spoke. Shortly after she left, a converted ambulance took her spot and later that evening, a small car drove through the site, pulled off to the ambulance’s side of the space, and drove into vegetation and set up a tent. Before Chase arrived, a large class C pulled in between me and the ambulance. I felt it was extremely rude to pull in so close. He got out and checked to see that we each had enough space to get out should we need to and got in the RV and we didn’t see him again. When Chase arrived, he was shocked at how many rigs had pulled into a space clearly meant for two. Before we went to bed, another car pulled in and parked next to the man in the vegetation, and another van pulled in so close to the ambulance that they couldn’t possibly open their doors at the same time. It was crazy.
By the next morning it became clear that the van and ambulance occupants knew each other, Chase and I were parked very close to each other, and the man in the vegetation had been joined by his girlfriend. The giant Class C left early in the morning. So there were 6 rigs (three groupings of two) in a spot meant for one group, or maybe two individuals. Everyone was fairly well-spaced for a crowded campground, and everyone was quite respectful of the other groups. Then a rancher came through on horseback, with a pack of herding dogs, and they moved the cows further out in the pasture. The rancher and his dogs came through the gate at the end of the camping area, and came through our site like Visigoths. They were joined within minutes by two men in trucks, who asked Chase to move his van so they could hook up the tanker of water and move it out. He did so much more graciously than I would have. At the same time, a man in a truck pulling a trailer decided to pull in and take the spot of the ambulance and van who had just left. It was (hmm…what’s the correct term? Oh yeah. A CLUSTER FUCK.) I found myself very annoyed with the large pull-behind trailer and truck just barreling in and taking the spot that Chase and I had talked about moving into when the Ambulance and friend pulled out. There were already 4 vehicles, two with trailers and a man on horseback in the spot meant for two, and he apparently felt he would just bypass us all, and stake his ground. I was much more annoyed at the rancher’s lack of respect, pulling in two trucks with trailers, a man on horseback and a pack of dogs, off leash and running amok in our campsite, one of them (dogs, not ranchers) peeing on my chair. They acted as if they owned the place.
I don’t know what the agreement is with cattle ranchers and the National Forest. The land we were on was clearly designated for camping, with signs saying to park only in designated spots. We were in a designated spot. I suspect there must be similar “rules” for the ranchers, but I don’t know what those rules are.
I had felt all week that the designated sites within the National Forest are “first come, first served.” Most others seemed to feel the same way, as I saw many other vehicles/rigs, pull to the end of the road, turn around, give our site a look and decide that it was occupied and went back down the road. Others seemed to think this was the last possibility, and since all sites were down the road were occupied, they thought they could “squeeze in” and make it work with no regard to those of us who arrived early and got a spot. I don’t know what the “rules” are. I don’t know what the etiquette over campsites on government land is, but I sure felt invaded by the ranchers and those campers who pulled into an already crowded site and decided they somehow had the right to come in anyway. I’ll definitely have to do some research into the rules and do some heart searching as to “sharing my spot” with people I think are just plain inconsiderate.